Reviews by jaileer5

I don't know how the rest of this album is going to play out, but the first 45 seconds of song 1 has done my head in. Is this Bob Dylan...with vocal reverb? It's not quite auto-tune, but there's something being done here to digitize his voice. That's bizarre.

OK, the first song was actually kind of the highlight of the album. Firstly, it's too long. I don't need an hour and a quarter of...whatever this is. Secondly, I'm not sure who this is for, other than existing Dylan fans. Did this album attract a bunch of new fans? I doubt it. It's not, like, actively awful, but it's kind of boring. It doesn't have the punchiness of Dylan's early work.

I just saw that this album won Album of the Year over OK Computer and I'm absolutely dumbfounded. That's highway robbery. I want to penalize this a star because I'm annoyed, but I just learned that my favorite Dylan song, It's Not Dark Yet, is on this album, so I'll stick to a very generous 3 stars.

Well, it's certainly...unique. It's like part jazz, part prog, part experimental...there are parts that almost sound very early electronic.

I'll say that while I didn't *love* it, this would be the best "jazz" album I've listened to in this project. Conversely, it's probably the worst prog rock album I've gotten. Overall, I don't hate it, and I tend to have a soft spot for music where you can hear the foundations of what's to come, and that describes this album pretty well. I don't know the history of prog rockery well, but I imagine an album released in 1970 must have been right around the beginning, and so this is the band that had to crawl so that bands like Rush could run, and Tool could fly.

3 stars because it is fun, new (to me), and influential.

This is a pretty cool album, but I think it's a bit uneven. Songs like Kinky National are awesome and I think they hold up quite well. On the other hand, songs like Pacific 202 are not quite hitting. I can't tell if that's because they're just kind of out of date, or if they're just bad songs. But I'll tell you what - when this album gets it right, the songs are BANGING.

This is such a tough rating, because the good songs are *really* good, but the meh songs just drag down the overall vibe. 3.5 is the right call here, but do I bump it half a star or dock it half a star? Considering how early this album is in the electronic era, I'm leaning towards a bump. Because this isn't early, German, experimental noise electronica, it's catchy, bouncy and revolutionary.

Very good album. It’s a bit of a time capsule for me, back to a time when neo-soul was hot, and acts like Erykah Brady, D’Angelo, and Music Soulchild were at the height of their powers.

Badu wasn’t in the heaviest rotation for me at that time, but my wife tells a story of how when we first met, she had a boyfriend. So on her drive home she gave herself until a certain point on her trip to think of me, and up until that point, her artist of choice was Erykah Badu.

I think it’s great. It’s a bit dated, but there’s a lot of nostalgia in this for me. I went through a club kid phase in the mid 90s, and I listened to a lot of Goldie. I grew up a bit sheltered, so finding black artists in genres other than hip hop and r&b was always a real thrill for me at the time.

Musically, I still think the album is so creative and interesting. I’m always a fan of melding genres, and this album does that so well. It’s electronica, it’s dance music, but it’s softer, somehow, more languid. Its Drum & Bass, but dreamy.

Again, I do think it’s slightly dated, but that may be because I can’t help but think of myself listening to it 30 years ago. Conversely, it’s so unique that it almost has a timeless quality to it that would allow anyone to throw it on for mood music and get the same atmospheric vibe as the first day it was released. I’m giving it a half star nostalgia bump.

I think the late 80s had some awesome music by artists that are more thought of as 90s artists - Prince, Nine Inch Nails - even Bleach by Nirvana was released in 1989.

Then you have music that is quintessentially 80s music. And I think 80s music is the worst decade for music. And this sounds more 80s than anything that has ever 80s.

I enjoyed it. Not sure how to review it though. I'd scythes is by far the best "world" album I've heard - the music is really cool and the vocals are great as well. probably a 3.5 but zI'm feeling generous so I'll bump to a 4.

One of the most formative hip hop albums in history. Hip hop has changed so much over the years, that so much of this sounds dated, but to disrespect its cutting edge and its influence is *not* something I'm going to do. Sounds like My Adidas, It's Tricky, and the Aerosmith collaboration Walk This Way are such classics it's almost impossible to review them without the weight of history and influence.

It's rare that you listen to an album and understand that without that specific release at that point in time, an entire genre of music would possibly not exist, or would be so different as to have been something completely changed. This is one such album.

This is hip hop history. This is American history.

The Rolling Stone review from 1969 starts with a perfect encapsulation of this album:

"It doesn’t take a great deal of listening to realize that Cohen can’t sing, period. And yet, the record grows on you, and if you give it a chance, it has something to offer. But you can hardly be blamed if you aren’t willing to take the time."

However...

"something else does evolve on the far side of these stumbling blocks. It is a sound portrait of a man and of mood. A picture of Leonard Cohen: a terribly poetic, sensitive person who is depressed and depressing and who is capable of a great deal of honesty. His poetry, which might be considered sophomoric, becomes more serious when you realize that the man is pouring out his life before you. It becomes a somewhat painful thing to hear."

Finally:

"The backup and arrangements, while they occasionally underscore Cohen’s weakness as a singer, are superb at creating mood. The predominant mood is one of nostalgia and a rather wistful tenderness. And to someone who can relate to this sort of mood, the album would be appreciated."

And that's where I'm at. I'm not sure if I *like* it. but...I kinda don't hate it. I don't AT ALL see why he's so famous, but in a certain mood, I can see why someone would want to reach for this album. But I can also see why people would hate it.

This album is a total vibe for me. I listened to it a ton when it came out. Lots of nostalgia built into this. I think these are great songs, and it should probably be 3.5 stars, but I’ll bump it a half star for the nostalgia.

It's fine. I like Blur, but I think this album is a bit hit and miss. This is more of a transitional album, and they really hit their stride on Parklife. I'd imagine Parklife has to be on this list, otherwise I find it extremely sad that this album is here instead of the one that sent them stratospheric.

Also, I love Gorillaz. That has nothing to do with this album, of course, but I just wanted you to know.

Nope, not for me. It just sounds like old hippy rock, I don’t know why this is special.

This is a tremendous album. I listened to the *shit* out of it back in the day, man. When it first popped up, I thought I'd be ranking it 5 stars. Listening to it today, I'm not sure it *quite* reaches that top tier. Although some songs, like Credit in the Straight World, are much better than I remembered, overall, I just think it sounds a bit dated. I say that as the gentlest critique possible, because this album, as the kids say, absolutely slaps.

There's a fair bit of nostalgia involved in listening to this, not only for who I wa during the time this was released, but also because I can, now more than then, hear Kurt's influence on every one of these songs. I have no idea if, as has been rumored, Kurt actually wrote or helped write any of these songs, but if he didn't, Courtney just straight up stole his style because this album sounds like a Nirvana B-Side, and I say that in the best way possible.

I listened to it a second time, because it's awesome, and because I'm conflicted. I try to keep 5 stars rare, but goddammit, this is one of the best grunge albums ever made, and one of the best albums of the 90s full stop It has it's flaws, sure, and I'd give it a 4.5 if I could, but I can't, and so I'm more comfortable bumping it a half star on vibes versus docking it.

Tough one. It’s not for me, but apparently it’s a classic of the genre. I’ll give it 3 stars because I can definitely appreciate the skill and musicality. It’s not bad as background music, but I wouldn’t exactly seek it out.

Mind. Blown. I don't know what I expected, but it's fantastic. From the first second of the first song, the album smacks you in the mouth and dares you to do something about it. Considering this was released in the early 90s, the bravery it took to talk about slave ships, and racism, and putting the spotlight squarely on white people is astounding. The Bomb Squad beats are out of this world with an aggressive, almost punk rock feel.

I've always kind of wondered what the point of Flava Flav is, but his interjections on this album are nearly perfect. His solo offerings are probably some of the weaker points of the album, but overall, he adds to the vibe rather than takes away.

And then there's Bring the Noise, their collaboration with Anthrax. This song might be the #1 reason American suburban white boys started listening to rap, and there's a direct line that can be drawn between this song and the nu metal movement that dominated the rock airwaves.

Whenever I've gotten an album from this era, I always remark on how anachronistic it sounds. And, I could definitely say that about parts of this as well, but because this album was *so* different, it just didn't age the same way. The flow is definitely different, you can tell it's from a different era, but the beats are so unique that it's really tough to place it if you didn't know.

With half stars, this is 4.5. But because of the creativity, the bravery, and the influence, I'm very comfortable giving this a 5 star rating for this project.

This is a very good album. I'd give it a 3.5 if I could, but I'll bump it to 4 stars because there just really isn't much out there like it. Common is, rightly, lumped in as a "conscious" rapper, but there's a lot more than that on this album. There's jazz, there's blues, there are collaborations, there's standard braggadocio, hard core rap. It's really a great presentation for the breadth of Common's vision and skill.

Sunshine of Your Love is a good song, but Living Color did it better. I'd say it's a fine 60s rock album, but nothing special.

It's actually pretty good. I think it's really creative and I like the way how it melds different genres into something new and fresh. That said, I'm having a bit of trouble ranking it. I think it's good, quite good, but I also think the singer's voice is a little grating, and it starts to sound a bit Arcade Fire-y at points, which is annoying. It's an easy 3.5 if we had half star rankings, but the struggle is - do I bump it to a 4 or leave it as a 3?

It's better than yesterday's Minor Threat album, which I gave a 3, and probably better than the Sonic Youth album I gave a 3 the days before that. I gave Travis a 4, which is probably a bit high, to be honest, but this isn't as good as The Blueprint by Jay-Z, which I gave a 4 last week. Ultimately, I think 3, because by the time I got to the back end of the album I was more than ready to have it wrapped up.

If I'm not mistaken, this was one of the bands that really helped shape and inspire the American punk scene, along with kind of being the forefathers of the Straight Edge movement. Anyway, like most punk, this is extremely basic. It sounds like any group of 3 people who are minimally competent with their instrument of choice, and a random singer/yeller who could literally be anyone.

That aside, it's not terrible. some of the songs are pretty catchy, actually. I'm never blown away by the technicality of any of it, but it's fine. It starts to get a little same-y, but one thing I love about punk is that the album is only 22 minutes. That's not nearly enough time for me to get super annoyed. 3 stars is about right.

I don’t adore Sonic Youth, but they were just so omnipresent in the musical realm of my late teens/early 20 as I transitioned into listening to “secular” music. I never listened to a lot of them, but it seemed like all the bands I loved loved Sonic Youth. This is the third album of theirs I’ve gotten, and it's pretty much par for the course - no better, no worse. I know they're hugely influential, but I wouldn't seek this album out to listen to on purpose.